Retell a significant experience in your life, a personal story with a point (though not necessarily a moral). Choose a sequence of events that 1) supports a specific thesis and 2) helps you fulfill a rhetorical purpose regarding a specific audience.
Invention
Keep in mind as you brainstorm/draft:
Scope: You cannot explain your entire high school experience or history as a baseball player in one brief essay. Choose one particular memory as a starting point.
You should have a purpose in mind as you write your own memoir: to argue a point, to create a mood (maybe entertain), to instruct, inform, explain, or to provide cultural or philosophical commentary, blame, praise, and so forth.
Your memoir should be tailored for a specific audience—think about who could learn something from your experience.
You will want to be especially strategic in deciding which features of the experience (which details, characters, settings, and dialogue) you want to focus on and which you should ignore. Nobody could tell the whole story in all its richness, but some details will help you make your point more than others.
You may want to conduct some naturalistic research (e.g., interviewing a friend or family member about a specific memory, observing a particular environment, etc.). This will allow you to understand a moment from someone else’s perspective, or look more closely at a place or behavior.
Expectations
A successful personal narrative will:
Focus on a significant experience;
Use plenty of sensory details;
Include dialogue that reveals information about your characters;
Employ transitions that will help your reader follow your narrative and/or logic;
Showcase your own voice and way of talking; and
Provide reflection and analysis in order to help your audience understand what the experience meant to you.
Length: 3-4 pages (double-spaced) Rough Draft Due: October 12, 2011 Final Assignment Portfolio Due: October 17, 2011
Purpose
Retell a significant experience in your life, a personal story with a point (though not necessarily a moral). Choose a sequence of events that 1) supports a specific thesis and 2) helps you fulfill a rhetorical purpose regarding a specific audience.Invention
Keep in mind as you brainstorm/draft:Expectations
A successful personal narrative will:- Focus on a significant experience;
- Use plenty of sensory details;
- Include dialogue that reveals information about your characters;
- Employ transitions that will help your reader follow your narrative and/or logic;
- Showcase your own voice and way of talking; and
- Provide reflection and analysis in order to help your audience understand what the experience meant to you.
Length: 3-4 pages (double-spaced)Rough Draft Due: October 12, 2011
Final Assignment Portfolio Due: October 17, 2011
Proposal Questions